For more than 100 years, piston aircraft pilots have been priming, pumping and leaning their engines to coax maximum performance out of them (or just keep them running). Other types of gasoline-powered conveyances largely ditched carburetion and all that comes with it 10 years ago but aircraft have been slow to adopt digital control of the things that make the prop go around. Continental has certified Full Authority Digitial Engine Control (FADEC) on its 0240 engine and the lessons learned are modestly leading the industry in a direction that seems inevitable. AVweb flew the FADEC demo Diamond DA20 at Sun 'n Fun and, thanks to software upgrades and other tweaks, there were none of the running faults that have been reported in the past. Not only does the engine run well, it can tell you when it's not feeling well. In this AVweb Exclusive Video from Glenn Pew, Continental's Phillip Grice explains the system and its advantages: